


Lessons of Commencement

by lodgedinmythoughts



Series: Lessons with Lokane [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - All Human, Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff, Graduation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-09
Updated: 2018-09-09
Packaged: 2019-07-10 02:19:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15939767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodgedinmythoughts/pseuds/lodgedinmythoughts
Summary: Graduation day has arrived.





	Lessons of Commencement

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this at like 4 in the morning 'cause why not?

“Woo!” Jane laughed, tracking the cap flying straight above her head, fast in its subsequent descent as the exuberant cheers from the crowd and newly-minted graduates rang out across the courtyard. With a small “oof,” she was forced to reach out an embarrassing length to catch the cap before it collided with the person diagonal from her. Plopping it back onto her head with a grin, she turned to Loki, who was dressed identically in a black cap and gown, a crimson stole around his neck.

He fixed her slanted cap until it no longer threatened to slide off, tugging lightly on her tassel when he finished. His eyes danced with mirth. “I never expected to see that tradition outside of television and film.”

“Aren’t you impressed I caught it, though?” She shook him by the shoulders. “Live a little, Loki!”

“Well, if it’s you telling me that, I must be doing something terribly wrong.”

She shook him again. “We’re college graduates! We graduated college! We did it!”

Laughing, he took her similarly by the shoulders. “Indeed, we did, Jane.”

She stood on her tip-toes to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. Her voice came out softly, just for the two of them. “Congratulations.”

He rubbed her shoulders, and his soft answering smile left more of an imprint on her than all the surrounding noise. “And to you.”

Later, she was pulling him through the sea of graduates and guests when she spotted Darcy up ahead.

“Jane!” Darcy waved eagerly and captured her in a tight squeeze. “Dude, Jane, congrats! Senior year won’t be the same without you.”

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine without me, Darcy.”

“Doubt it. Who’s gonna keep me company in the library while I pretend to do my work?” She looked at Loki then, a knowing smirk tugging at her lips, and reached out for a goodnatured slap of his arm. “Hey, congrats, dude.”

He accepted the gesture graciously and dipped his head, eyes squinted slightly in the sunlight. “Darcy. Thank you.”

Afterwards, the pair of them continued to make their way through the quad, stopping to chat with others and getting roped into posing for more than several pictures. At one point, Loki found himself caught up in conversation with the head of the philosophy department while Jane stood a little ways away, content to observe the activity around her. Playing with the cap in her hand, she drank in the celebratory atmosphere.

“Hey, Jane.”

She turned to find Evan, Loki’s rugby teammate and her once-upon-a-party-admirer, approaching with an easygoing smile. He pulled her into a hug.

“Evan! Hey, congratulations.”

“You, too. Man, I can’t believe we’re done,” he said, ruffling his blond hair.

“I know. Where’d the time go?”

“Probably asked myself that same question everyday for the last year.” He glanced over at Loki, who seemed to still be engaging in conversation with the department chair purely out of decorum. “So, you and Loki, huh?”

She cast a glance of her own and found Loki’s head turned towards her, his eyes flickering over to Evan for a split second, before he returned his attention to the professor. “Yeah. Me and Loki.”

Jane had interacted with Evan multiple times since their meeting back in autumn, and he’d proven to be amiable and easy to talk to. If he was disappointed from losing out on any sort of chance with her, he didn’t show it, simply nodding instead.

Loki chose to make his reappearance then, casually looping an arm around Jane’s waist. He held out a hand. “Evan.”

Evan took it, grasping him by the arm as well. “Congrats, man. Looks like we did it, huh?”

“Indeed, it does.”

What followed was a long moment of silence wherein both Jane and Evan racked their brains for something to say while Loki retained that perfectly pleasant look on his face. Evan eventually broke the silence.

“Well, hey, I see my family over there, so I’m gonna go meet up with them. But hey, it was really cool seeing you guys.”

“Yeah, you, too,” said Jane. “Good luck, you know, with—life.” She let out a nervous laugh in an effort to mask the awkwardness.

He offered a supporting smile. “Thanks. Yeah, now I gotta figure out what to do with this history degree. But hey, good luck to you, too. Ya know, with life and all that jazz.” With a chuckle, he tipped his imaginary hat before going on his way.

With a wave, Jane watched him go before rounding on Loki. “Could you be any more rude?”

“What? I haven’t done anything.”

She pried the hand from her waist and held it so it hovered over her instead. “He already knows I’m with you. I’m not a thing to stake your claim on, Loki.”

She started moving away, but he trapped her with an arm around her shoulder, wrapping across her front so that his hand gripped her other shoulder. With his chest pressed up against her back, he leaned down to her ear. “You love it, Jane. No need to hide it.”

She ignored the heavy flips in her stomach and pulled his arm off. “I see your family. Come on.”

With an expression that spoke of entirely too much self-satisfaction, he easily caught up, grabbing her hand to entwine his fingers with hers. She spared a glance over her shoulder, intending to grace him with a scolding look, but was unable to hold back the accompanying upward curve of her lips.

“Oh, congratulations, you two,” Frigga said as they approached. As Jane was closest, the older woman pulled her into a warm hug as the men went to congratulate Loki, Thor with a hearty slap across the back and Odin with a handshake. After pulling away, Frigga presented her with a bouquet of purple irises and yellow roses with bits of fennel sprinkled throughout.

“Oh, wow, thank you so much. That’s so kind of you.” Jane looked over the bouquet with admiration.

“Think nothing of it, dear.” In a tender, maternal move, Frigga tucked a piece of hair behind Jane’s ear, causing a sharp, bereft sensation to slice through Jane’s chest. “You should be proud of yourself.”

Then she moved on to Loki, whom she hugged tight and kissed fervently on the cheek before speaking softly enough to him that the others couldn’t make it out. Jane exchanged a few polite words with Odin then, and suddenly, Thor was attacking her with a bear hug.

“Jane!” Then, as if coming to the conclusion that his embrace perhaps wasn’t the most apt, given their history and current connection, he substantially loosened his hold on her and pulled away. He gestured to her, looking her over. “I can’t believe you’re done. That’s one milestone out of the way now, eh?”

“I guess so. It’s good to see you, Thor. I heard you’ve been going all around Asia lately.”

“Oh, yes. There’s entirely too much to see and do and not enough time in the world.”

“Well, I’m glad you managed to make time out of your busy schedule to come out for your brother’s graduation.”

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss my baby brother’s graduation for the world.” He punched Loki on the arm, which Loki answered with a barely-refrained eye roll.

“How about we all go out to celebrate?” said Frigga. “Have a meal somewhere nice? It’s been too long since we’ve spent time together as a family.”

_Family._

The sharp sensation in Jane’s chest was back, this time accompanied by the unexpected tell-tale prickling at the back of her nose.

“Actually, Jane and I were going to spend the afternoon together, just the two of us,” said Loki. “I’m terribly sorry, mother, but I’ve already got everything prepared.” Jane quirked an eyebrow at that. “How about dinner later tonight? It can be as grand as you wish.”

Frigga chuckled and stepped forward to take his hand. “Sounds marvelous. Oh, Loki, I am so proud of you, sweetheart.” She then reached out to take Jane’s hand with her other, a soft look in her eye. “Both of you. I know, Jane, that if your parents could be here today, they would feel just as I do.”

Jane could only give her a small smile in response, lest the moisture start pooling in her eyes.

“Now, then,” Frigga continued, “I know you said you had everything prepared, whatever that means, but if you think I’m letting you go without my fair share of mementos, you clearly don’t know me at all.” She gestured to Thor for the black bag slung over his shoulder.

Jane leaned in to Loki. “Mementos?”

“Photos, of course.” Wrapping an arm around her waist, he planted a kiss on her temple.

And so, they all spent a good while taking pictures, and afterwards, Frigga was ushering the two of them away.

“Off you go, then. Don’t let us keep you. We know how to keep ourselves entertained.”

“Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve set foot on my old stomping grounds,” Thor said with a glance around. “There’s much I miss about it.”

“We’ll see you later this evening,” Frigga added.

After more farewells, the groups parted, and Jane tugged on Loki’s hand to keep him from getting any farther. She narrowed her eyes. “What did you mean when you said you have everything prepared?”

He bit back a smile. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, Jane. I just meant all the food’s been put together and is waiting at my humble abode.”

“Put together? I thought we were just gonna go down to one of the diners downtown.”

“It’ll be a little crowded, wouldn’t you say? Besides, the view from the hill near my neighborhood has yet to be discovered by many, it seems, and the place is likely to be empty.” He brushed a tiny piece of fluff from her cheek with his thumb.

A smile slowly curved its way onto her mouth. “A private hilltop lunch? How sickeningly romantic of you, Loki.”

He tilted her chin up. “Only for you, Jane.” Then he leaned down for a kiss.

Hand in hand, they walked through campus, drawing farther away from the hubbub of the quad. Jane breathed in the early summer air and looked around wistfully at the buildings, the statues, even the lampposts she’d known for four years.

“My dad would’ve liked this place, I think. The architecture, the feel of it all. My mom, too, I’m sure.”

She was hit with yet another pang of that distinct prior sensation, which she was then able to place as loneliness, knowing if not for the presence of Frigga, Thor, even Odin, there would’ve been nothing there resembling a family to greet her after the ceremony. She had Darcy, of course, but nothing quite as permanent, as inexplicable as family. Her aunt, her only living relative, lived on the other side of the country and had never shared a particularly close relationship with Jane, even when she opened up her home for those months following the death of her brother-in-law until Jane left for school with the money her dad had left her to keep her afloat.

She was surprised when, wordlessly, Loki stopped her in her tracks to brush away the tear she thought had fallen unseen.

“I suspect my mother already thinks of you as one of her own,” he said. “Alarming, isn’t it? It’s only been five months.”

Jane pulled him along to resume their earlier pace and bumped into his side purposely, playfully. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s more than five months, actually. Your mom did mention something once about how you’d randomly bring me up in conversation or how you’d be taking a quiet moment outside to look at the stars. How awfully sentimental, Loki. Thinking of me often, were you?”

She meant for her remark to be teasing, but Loki merely peered at her from the side, and she had the sneaking suspicion he was embarrassed.

“You’re blushing.” Oh, was she going to bask in this.

“I most certainly do not blush.”

“Uh-huh. You’re totally blushing.”

He rolled his eyes. “And if I happened to tell you you take up entirely too much space in my thoughts? What would you say?”

She found she couldn’t tear her eyes away from his profile as they walked along the brick path. Chewing on her lip, she decided she would tell him only the truth. “I’d say it scares me a little. To have your unmitigated focus.”

He angled his face towards her, and she was doubly pressed to keep her eyes on him.

“But it’s not a bad kind of scared. It’s thrilling, actually, exhilarating. Sexy.”

His unfaltering gaze did horrible things to her insides. “Trust you to reveal far more to me than I ever expected.” Releasing her hand, he held her tightly to his side and let his nose rest atop her hair, where she felt him inhale softly.

They would continue on their way to his apartment where a meal awaited, and they would picnic on that hilltop that Jane would later witness held an awe-inspiring view of downtown. They would then retreat indoors, where they’d make frenzied love, take a nap, and make love again until she was giggling in their haste to throw on their clothes and make it on time for dinner with his family. She would fly out the door after him, any real-world cares forgotten for the time being, and wonder how on earth she’d gotten there.

There was no changing the past, and there was no knowing the future.

Tonight, however, would be more than enough.


End file.
